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 Old Testament Saints -bonar


[b]Old Testament Saints[/b]
[i]by Horatius Bonar[/i]

God’s appeal to Israel in behalf of His laws and statutes are not to be evaded by us. They were addressed by a redeeming God to a redeemed people, that "knew the joyful sound" (Ps. 89:15), and had tasted the blessedness of pardon. These appeals were not meant to bring them into bondage. Obedience was liberty to them as to us. Israel stood upon the blood, just as we do. Abraham is Paul’s model of a justified man; and David his model of a man enjoying the blessedness of righteousness without works. The freest proclamations of pardon and life, in which we rejoice, are those addressed to Israel. Old Testament believers did not occupy a lower level than we do; nor did they walk in legal bondage because they had not yet seen the cross. They were "saints" as truly as we are (Ex. 19 :6; Lev. 11 :44, 19:2; Deut. 33 :3; Ps. 89:5-7); dwelt in, and filled with the Holy Spirit (Ex. 28:3, 31:3, 35:31; Num. 11:17, 25; 2 Sam. 23:2; Prov. 1:23; Isa. 44:3, 63:11; Micah 3:8; 2 Pet. 1:21); soils of God (Ex. 4:22, 23; Prov. 3:11; Jer. 31:9-20; Hosea 1:10; Heb. 12:5); God’s royal priesthood (Ex. 19 :6) ; God’s portion and inheritance (Deut. 32:9); heirs of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 8:11); strangers upon earth (1 Chron. 29:15; Ps. 39:12; Heb. 11:13); partakers of the first resurrection (Heb. 11:35) ; members of Christ’s body (Isa. 26:19); His spouse and bride (Ps. 45:10-14; Cant. 4:8; Isa. 54:5; 62:5); partakers of the heavenly calling (Heb. 11:10, 16). In short, there is nothing affirmed of New Testament saints that is not affirmed of Old Testament ones; and to say that because Israel as a nation had the earthly things, therefore the" saints in Israel had not the heavenly, is to overlook some of the clearest declarations of the Word. The mystery or secret which the apostle announces (Eph. 3:6), was not that a new thing called the church had commenced at Pentecost (there is no hint of such a thing), but that into the old and well-known body, THE CHURCH, so often spoken of in the Old Testament, and symbolized in the Song of Solomon as THE church without spot or wrinkle (Song 4:7), the Gentiles were to be introduced and set on the same level as the Old Testament members. "That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs (with the ancient saints), and of the same body" (with them), is the fair interpretation of the apostle’s language.


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